September 27th, 2011
SolarCity’s ambitious plan to bring solar energy systems to 160,000 private military residences is hitting a major speed bump because of problems with a federal loan guarantee.
SolarCity was to install, own and operate the solar energy systems at as many as 124 military bases in 33 states. The project, valued at $1 billion, would essentially double the number of rooftop residential photovoltaic systems in the US over the next five years.
Funding was expected to come from US Renewable Group’s debt financing arm, which partnered with Bank of America Merrill Lynch to provide $344 million to SolarCity for the project. 80% of the loan was to have been backed by a DOE loan guarantee. Now the DOE won’t be able to close the loan guarantee before the program expires on Sept. 30. The loan guarantee was needed to lower the cost of capital for the project.
In a letter sent from SolarCity’s CEO to House Republicans asking for help in extending the program’s deadline, the company blamed the delay on additional paperwork requested in the wake of Solyndra’s failure. Solyndra had received $535 million in DOE loans but filed for bankruptcy the day before SolarCity was offered its own $275 million loan guarantee.
So, our military continues to be the place for experimenting with poor ideas. I you lived in one of the homes that was going to be sun-powered, and the sun didn’t shine that day, does this mean that you have no electricity that day? Don’t really want your home electricity fading out because some cloud was overhead for too long, do you? Or is some fossil-fueled power station cranking out electricity in case you need it? And if that power station is cranking out the power—just in case you need it—then we’re simply double-producing the power, right?
Let’s wait until private industry works out the bugs in this alternative power stuff before we invest billions of federal dollars into it (dollars we don’t have) or force it on our military—who can’t say no.
Tags: experiments, loan guarantees, military residences, solar energy, SolarCity, Solyndra
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September 25th, 2011
Topics
News and Comment by the Col: They Asked The General to Lie
Col Dave Britton: Courage without Fear: The Story of the Grand Rapids Guard
Prof Marcos Dantus: Lasers Defeating Roadside Bombs
Sheryl Carter: Military Families; ESGR: Call to Action; Last Thoughts
Listen to this episode:
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September 20th, 2011
Today, 21 Sept 2011, we, the US Military, say good-bye to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” DADT has served us well for many years. It has been cast off by people who never served and never plan to serve in our military.
It’s clear that homosexual Americans have served and are serving honorably and well in our military. There is nothing about them or their status that prohibits good military service. The problem is that our sexuality is at the very root of our beings; it’s not something, like hair color, that is incidental to our personalities. Under DADT homosexuals could serve as long as their sexuality was not known. What they (or any soldier) did off post, off duty was, and should be, their own business. It worked.
For decades now, our military has been a purely voluntary force. As a general statement, the young men and women who choose to serve in our military are of a somewhat conservative value set. This group, more than any other, finds homosexuality inappropriate—for a number of reasons, some of them religious. Our military culture, then, is not favorable to the homosexual lifestyle. Yet, the liberals who controlled our nation for the first two years of the Obama administration took it upon themselves, during the last few weeks that they had power, to make this major change that will affect our military force significantly.
What would any human being do if they suddenly found themselves in an environment which was very uncomfortable to them? That’s easy; when neighborhoods start getting run-down, the original inhabitants simply move away. I fully expect the bulk of the fine young people who serve in our military to vote with their feet—and leave the military.
While most homosexual folks are just, well, folks, who have no desire to push their status or preference on other people, there are some who will—and some of these will seek out the military to push their new-found status into the faces of those who have served our nation honorably and well through the last 10 years of war. Fists will be thrown and the politically correct nature of all our senior government officials, including those in uniform I fear, will protect the homosexual and punish the “straight” troop. And they’ll simply leave the military. This is what will destroy our too-small but very competent military.
Destroy it? Yes. When the current crop of brave troops leave, who will take their place? The sons and daughters of the liberals who forced this upon us? No. They never join. The answer is that no one will. Our too small military now will truly be a very, very small and ineffective force. And it all began today.
Tags: conservative, DADT, homosexuals, liberals, military, obama
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September 20th, 2011
On 20 Sep 1917, the 26th “Yankee” Division (a National Guard unit from CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, VT) became the first American division to arrive in Europe during WWI. More than one million American soldiers and Marines joined them by war’s end in November 1918. All 18 National Guard divisions served in France, but only 11 saw combat as intact units. Six others became “depot” divisions, serving as a source of replacements for casualties suffered by the frontline divisions. One, the 93rd Division, composed of all of the Guard’s African American units, has each of its four regiments parceled out to three different French divisions because American army leadership did not want to mix black and white soldiers together. Our nation has come a long way since those days of segregation, and we’re much better for it.
Tags: 26th Yankee Division, division, Europe, national guard, regiments, WW I
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September 18th, 2011
On 18 Sept 1973, future President Jimmy Carter filed a report with the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena, claiming he had seen a UFO in October 1969. During the presidential campaign of 1976, Carter promised that, if elected president, he would encourage the government release “every piece of information” about UFOs available. After winning the presidency, though, Carter backed away from this pledge, saying that the release of some information might have “defense implications” and pose a threat to national security.
All these years later, I wonder what was going on in Carter’s mind. Despite his honorable service in the US Navy, he was perhaps the worst president of recent history (a position currently being challenged). Further, his post-presidential periodic outbursts make it clear that he’s a bitter and somewhat disturbed person. Maybe he was abducted.
Tags: abducted, Jimmy Carter, National defense, UFO
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